Thousands of British students have descended on a Spanish seaside resort to take part in a drunken annual festival that has outraged the locals.

The youngsters have arrived at Saloufest - billed as "the biggest student festival in the world" - in the Costa Dorada resort.

About 5,000 reached north-east Spain yesterday and by midnight many of the 18- to 23-year-olds were already drunk.

Television news footage showed students swigging from beer bottles on the beach, dancing nude in the sea and stumbling through the streets half-naked or in fancy dress.

Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo wrote today: "Before midnight the scene was indescribable. Hundreds of students in a whirlwind that would shame any parent."

A report on Antena 3, a national television channel, said that the festival was about "partying, drunkenness and sex".

One male student told a reporter: "We're going to have a good time. We're going to drink a lot. It's going to be fantastic."

The British students' drunken antics in Salou last year made headlines across the world after numerous arrests. One woman reveller said she had been raped on the beach.Saloufest is back for its tenth year, as 5,000 British students descend on the Tarragona resort, which had quietly been entertaining Spanish pensioners off-season.

A total of 7,250 university students are asset to descend on the resort this year, after last year’s particularly rowdy sessions of passion, partying and alcohol.

A fleet of as many as 80 coaches take 24 hours to bring the students across the channel and France to reach Salou, where they have full board accommodation in three star hotels and free entry to sports events organised for them, at the all-in price of between 300 and 450 € each.
There is the added cost of beer, a lot of beer, but even that, along with the spirits is cheaper than at home.

Doreen Staatman from Sol Active Tours has told the Spanish press that they bring 7,250 clients in the very low season. The British company, Love Tours, say they have toned down their advertising for the trip, after requests from Salou Town Hall. 

There are less explicit references to sex and alcohol in the literature, but that said the internet is full of photos and videos of the excesses of the British at play.

Love Tours has suggested fancy dress, but the Spanish press says the British students wish to strip has been an uncommon number of g-strings, Borat style this year.

The Mayor’s spokesman, Ramon Tubau, told Vocento, ‘We have bylaws on good behaviour, bothering the local residents is banned, and the police have a special responsibility in that respect. These youngsters cause no more riot that the thousands of visitors we see every summer’.

The first day of this year’s Saloufest was quiet – no noticeable disturbances and only four people needed medical treatment for drinking too much.

It’s estimated the students will spend some 8 million € in the town.